Released in 1996 from an unlikely source -- US Robotics, a modem
manufacturer -- Palm Organizers now enjoy the dominant position
in the Personal Digital Assistant (PDA) market place with approximately 80% of the market. It's not been an easy climb for the Palm, however, having to overcome Apple's Newton, Microsoft's
Windows CE, and several smaller players like Psion.

The key to the Palm's success has been its simplicity and open
development options. A lot of thought went into the PalmOS and
applications, to ensure that people could do things quickly,
efficiently, and without unneeded eye-candy that added
nothing to functionality. The fact that anyone could develop
applications for the Palm meant that developers were attracted to
the platform in droves, creating a huge inventory of commercial,
shareware and free applications.

There are a wide range of Palms on the market today, each
targeted for a slightly different audience. The III series is the
workhorse variety; these handhelds tend to be the cheapest and thus the most
popular. For example, the IIIe, with 2 megabytes of RAM, can be
found for less than $150 USD now. The Palm V series is targeted
more towards
executives, being slightly smaller, with a sexy metal case
and built-in rechargeable batteries. The last series currently available,
the Palm VII models, are very
similar to the IIIs in appearance but have built-in wireless
capability and an antenna.

In addition to handhelds built directly by Palm Computing, there are
also third-party manufactured units such as the Handspring Visor models
or the IBM Workpad. They all are running the PalmOS, licensed from Palm,
and have the same buttons, touch-screen and writing area. Each has
different amounts of built-in RAM and expansion abilities, and some
will have flash ROMs that will let you upgrade your OS.

Just what is a Palm Organizer?

Palm Organizers are full computers, but tiny enough to be held in the hand
and designed to be used to help people stay organized.
Most models are approximately 3 by 4.5 inches and about 3/4 of an inch
thick. They
have touch-sensitive displays that are 160 pixels square;
depending on the model, these will be either plain black-and-white,
grey-scale, or color.

Instead of a keyboard, there's an
area beneath the display where a special kind of handwriting, "Graffiti,"
is used. In addition to this, there are four "soft" buttons for
"Home," "Menu," "Calc," and "Search." Lastly, there are physical
buttons for "Calendar," "Phone List," "Lists," and "Memos," plus
scrolling and power buttons.

Most Palms have processors which are about twice as powerful as the
first model of Macintosh computers, although some newer models are
even faster. Most models are powered by a pair of AAA batteries, while
the higher-end versions have built-in rechargeables. Battery life can
provide weeks of regular use. While not something you'd run an RC5
key search on, these devices are certainly powerful enough for most
handheld applications.

It's important to realize that Palms are not intended to replace a
desktop or laptop, with their full environments, but instead are
designed to be satellite computing devices supporting people while
they're away from their desk.

All Palms have a serial port which
is used to synchronize information between the Pilot and the desktop by
way of an adapter cable or cradle. While on the road, a modem can be
used instead to update information. Some Palms also have
an infrared (IR) port, which can be used to communicate between the
devices and desktop machines if they're appropriately configured. And
of course, wireless models can always be connected, providing they're
in a service area.

Palm software

A key feature of the Palm design is that new software can be uploaded
to the devices, supplementing or completely replacing the pre-installed
software. The devices come with date book, address book, to-do list,
memo pad, e-mail, and expense applications built in, with each application
reading and writing well-documented database files. Enhancing a Palm
simply involves finding an application you want to run and uploading it.
There are lots of applications available -- some commercial but also a
great many that are free.

Palm devices don't have a hard drive, so everything is stored in a
nonvolatile RAM drive. Palm applications are simply files in this file system,
ending in .prc, and sit alongside any database files they create, usually
ending in .pdb. The "Applications Launcher" presents the user with a
list of all the .prc files on the Palm, with applications optionally
categorized to the user's preferences.

This means that managing software is quite easy, since each application
usually involves uploading just one file to the Palm, plus one or
more database files. Backing up the device involves copying and saving these same
files. On the Internet, Palm software is often distributed either packed
into an archive format, or simply as an uncompressed .prc. Installing new
software can be as easy as downloading from the Web with a browser
and then uploading to the device.

There are many sources for software to run on the Palm OS. The first
stop should probably be the Palm Software Connection at
http://www.palmpilot.com/resources/shareware.html, which links to a great many applications,
most of which can be downloaded, installed, and run immediately. Some are designed
for use with particular software on the desktop, but most are stand-alone
or use a standard data-interchange format through a "conduit," so different
Palm and desktop apps can inter-operate.

As with all software decisions, evaluation of many solutions is often the
best way to find the perfect fit. A large amount of free software is
available, all the way up to free GPL programs, and these are worth
hunting down and trying. As with any system, it's a really good idea to
back up before installing a new application or, at least, before launching it
for the first time.

The quality of the software available ranges from absolutely amazing to rather
underwhelming. And often this doesn't correlate with price -- some of the
apps I personally use the most are GPL, like DiddleBug and CSpotRun, while one app I paid $30 for always crashes on me.

The Palm and its competitors

Microsoft just recently announced their (lucky?) third attempt
at getting Windows CE working correctly and accepted by users.
Now called Pocket PCs and
Windows-enabled, the devices continue to rely on power-consuming
high-speed processors, large memory arrays and color displays to
deliver multi-media ability on devices that really aren't ready for it.
Until Microsoft realizes that functionality, not creeping featurism,
is what's needed in handheld devices, I don't think Palm has much to
worry about from Pocket PCs.

An area where I think Palm will soon have some competition is in
handheld and embedded Linux devices. As it's taking time for Linux
to gain desktop market-share, it will similarly take a while for it
to get a strong foothold in the PDA market as well. Also, Palm
Computing isn't standing still, with new devices and wireless features
announced just recently.

For end-users, right now, PalmOS-based devices are probably the best choice of
PDA, especially for Linux/Unix users. The software selection simply cannot
be matched by any other PDA solution, with a developer base similarly
large. No Palm is complete with only the software included, though, so
be sure to spend some time downloading and experimenting with some of the
available extra tools.

For developers, the PalmOS is a good platform to start on since it's
free to develop for and has a large user base to market to. Those interested
in catching the handheld Linux wave might find advantage in developing
Palm versions as well, if the application allows it. And since Palm
devices are available off the shelf immediately, prototyping and testing
can be done while the Linux devices come to market.

I personally don't know anyone who's used a Palm for a week, and was
then willing to give it up. Within a few weeks of buying my first Palm,
a second was purchased for my wife. They are simply too handy not
to have. Providing they're used to jot down every appointment
and item to be done, nothing will ever slip again. Of course, if
you don't tell your Palm, it can't tell you.

Editor's Note: Linux users who want to learn more about using the Palm should take a look at Chris Halsall's companion article, "Using the Palm with Linux." Also, don't miss Derrick Story's report on the YOPY, possibly the first PDA running the Linux operating system being produced by a startup in Korea.

Chris Halsall
is the Managing Director of Ideas 4 Lease (Barbados). Chris is a specialist... at automating
information gathering and presentation systems.